Jerry Sandusky Appeal: Convicted Child Molester Attempts to Get New Trial

Lawyers for Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach who was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in a scandal that rocked the university, will be in court on Tuesday as Sandusky attempts to appeal the conviction that sent him to jail for the next 30-to-60 years, according to the Associated Press.

The arguments will take place at the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., but Sandusky will remain hundreds of miles away in his cell. Pennsylvania state law bars him from attending the session, according to the Citizen's Voice.

"No incarcerated inmate is allowed to attend," Norris Gelman, Sandusky's lawyer, told the Citizen's Voice. "The security problems would be enormous."

Gelman has argued through court filings that Sandusky's lawyers were not given ample time to prepare their case prior to going to trial. Sandusky has also claimed that one of the prosecutors made an improper reference about Sandusky not testifying on his own behalf during the trial, according to the Associated Press.

The defense has also argued that errors made by the judge in the case contributed to the conviction; specifically that the judge gave poor instructions to the jury. In the eyes of the defense it was improper for the judge to tell the jury to weigh the testimony of Sandusky's character witnesses against the other evidence. Gelman also believes that the judge should have told the jury to make note of how long it took some of the victims to report the abuse when considering each witnesses' credibility, according to the Citizen's Voice.

"If the conviction is going to be overturned, it will be on one of these issues," Gelman said.

When the Sandusky case first came out it made news because of the effect it had on the football program at Penn State that had been built up by legendary coach Joe Paterno. As more revelations came out about the case a grand jury found that many high ranking school officials, including Paterno, had either actively covered up Sandusky's sexual assault of young boys on school property or failed to properly report the crimes, according to the BBC.